Not only does torture not work, it’s counterproductive, and when the practice elicits false confessions, societies pay a “very high price.” 

That’s from Professor Juan Méndez, who served at the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture from 2014 to 2016, and experienced torture himself while practicing law in his native Argentina, defending political prisoners during the country’s 1970’s military dictatorship.  

He spoke to UN News’s Natalie Hutchison in New York, on the sidelines of the General Assembly, as part of a meeting outlining how Member States are implementing a 2016 UN initiative to eliminate the practice.